El Chupacabra

From the makers of Dog Soldiers...?

Hey, wow, this movie thankfully broke the streak of truly horrible movies and lifted the heaviness from my heart! It's always rewarding when the net we cast into the formidable sea of B-movies drags up a movie that is actually enjoyable, has a good story, and a budget. A budget? That's right! I would classify The Wilderness as a foreign made A-movie that just didn't get enough exposure and marketing in North America.

The movie revolves around a group of juvenile delinquents housed at a youth detention facility. Two of the meaner teens, the kind that torture cats and light things on fire end up bullying a kid to the point that he committs suicide. The warden, furious about the incident, but unable to find the ones responsible, decides to send the whole lot to an isolated island for some natural rehabilitation and team building. Unfortunately, they're not alone on the island...

The movie built suspense nicely and even managed to keep me guessing about who the killer was. Moreover, the acting was good and made me care about who might die next. Throw in a few brutal action sequences and a twist at the end and you have yourself something to watch next Friday night.

Crap Bag

This movie takes place in a juvenile hall where the bullies are placed in the same room as the weaker kids whom they never really explain what they did that landed them in prison.  In typical fashion one of the weaker ones gets beat up so much that he slits his wrists.  He gets discovered by the newest inmate who seems indifference to the father’s questions regarding his son’s death.  As punishment the entire room is sent to an abandoned island for survival training and to get some discipline.  They encounter some female juvies who are also on the island for the same reason.  The group starts to get attacked by a pack of dogs and some guy in full cameo gear and crossbow.  First the chaperones are hunted down and then the kids.  The new juvie begins to fight back eventually killing the dogs as well as the hunter who turns out to be the boy who killed himself father.  This whole incident was the idea of the other boy that was picked on and when he gets confronted about it he trips and falls to his death.  The 2 remaining juvies decide to maintain that they died on the island so they can start new lives.  All in all this was a pretty good movie.  Standard plots of betrayal within the group coupled with interesting death sequences made for an interesting camping trip.  Not to mention send the black guy out alone and he is the first one in the group to die as per typical horror movies.  Although the father seems pretty vengeful against everyone even those that had nothing to do with his son’s suicide.